77

AURORA

“Why so glum?”

Tearing my gaze from the tiny piece of rubber flapping against the window, I glance at Orion who keeps his attention focused on the road.

“I’m not glum.”

“Is it the car?” His knuckles tighten slightly around the steering wheel. “Flashbacks?”

Shaking my head, I slide both hands down my thighs. “No. I’m not glum.”

“You are. I can tell.”

I tilt my head, eyeing him carefully. Trees fly past the window, standing tall and green with very little evidence of the snowstorm clinging to their branches. Snow melts fast in just three days.

“How can you tell anything through those glasses?”

Orion snorts softly. “I see everything. And they’re cool.”

“You think wearing sunglasses everywhere is cool?”

“What if I told you they were a strong prescription because I had scarring on my corneas, and I’m painfully sensitive to light?”

A pulse of alarm shoots down my arms. In all my light jesting of Orion and his glasses, I haven’t given much thought to the real reason why. “Are you serious?”

“Deadly.”

My heart sinks. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I just thought they were some little quirk that?—”

Orion snorts, and the corner of his mouth pulls up sharply.

“You asshole!” Reaching across, I shove Orion as hard as I dare and slump back in my seat.

“Hey, it was worth it to get to see you smile.”

Fighting the pull of amusement around my mouth is difficult when Orion chuckles. It’s a rare sound. In fact, I think this might be the longest conversation we’ve ever had.

“So, why do you look so down?”

My heart returns to its normal place and my gaze travels back out the window as the forest gives way to buildings and we reach the outskirts of New York City.

“It took me three days to persuade Lucian that I was well enough to leave the estate.” Three days of my mother calling non-stop with enough threats to turn my blood to ice. “And I want to see my mother. It just feels…strange to leave while that man is still unconscious.” Wrestling with the churning turmoil in my chest, my shoulders slump. “What if he dies when I’m not there?”

“What difference would that make?” Orion’s head tilts toward me.

“Huh?”

“If he’s going to die, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

“You don’t know that. If it happens while I’m there then I could?—”

“What?” Orion cuts that train of thought off immediately. “You’re not a nurse. Not a doctor. It makes no difference if you’re there or not.” One of his hands drops away from the wheel to rest against his black jeans. “Besides, Lucian won’t let that happen.”

I want to argue back. The responsibility I feel for him is smothering but Orion is right. If the worst happens, there’s nothing I can do.

“Have you found any of his family?” It’s a loaded question, but it’s been playing on my mind since the crash. Knowing who he is doesn’t make that any easier.

“Not yet,” Orion answers, and his voice is tight. “Given how Lucian’s taken over his care, we decided to keep a lid on things until we know what he was doing all the way out in the forest.”

Makes sense, I guess.

It’s a lie; I know that much. Lucian certainly won’t be reaching out to the authorities about the head of a rival family being half-dead under his roof. His mere presence spells danger for everyone involved, and keeping quiet is to protect Lucian and the estate, not for Cassian’s best interests.

The car pulls to a stop, jerking me from my running thoughts and a red light glares through the window.

“How much further?” Orion asks.

“Not far.” The cafe my mother uses as her regular meeting place is just around the corner, and being this close sends my heartbeat skittering off rhythm. She’s not going to be happy with me, and seeing her is almost as scary as seeing Cassian’s body on the road. Stifling a yawn, I press back into the chair as Orion snorts.

“Tired? Do you need me to go down on you again because you slept like a baby after that.”

Air catches sharply in my throat and I cough as warmth floods across my cheeks. Being around Orion after that hadn’t been as nerve-wracking as I expected, and since he never mentioned it, I’d been semi-convinced it was a dream.

Nope. That actually happened.

“I—” Words fail me.

Orion’s lips pull into the broadest smile I’ve seen. “All you have to do is ask.”

Truth be told, that orgasm was the most intense I’ve ever experienced. Maybe it was because I was so tired or from the adrenaline of the night, but either way, it was incredible and the sleep afterward was utterly divine. It helps that Orion is drop-dead gorgeous, and the simmering crush I have on him doesn’t stand a chance.

“Although,” Orion continues, unaffected by my silence. “You might have to ask Lucian first because I’m pretty sure he was jealous.”

“What?!” The word squeaks out of me but just as my tangled thoughts come together with questions about why Lucian matters, the car pulls to a stop once more. Behind Orion’s head is the cafe and through the window, my mother sits poker straight.

Suddenly, nothing else matters.

“Thank you,” I murmur, clutching at my bag. I open the door but I’m halfway out when Orion follows. “What are you doing?”

Orion closes the door and locks the car. “I’m taking care of you, remember?”

“You’re coming in with me?” No. This can’t happen. I can’t have him and my mother in the same place at the same time.

“Don’t worry; I’ll get my own table.” His lips twitch, and then he turns and strides into the cafe, the tails of his jacket flapping in the wind before I can even form a response.

Fuck.

All thoughts of attraction and sex melt away when I approach my mother’s table. Her straight blonde hair rests over one shoulder, and square spectacles balance on the very tip of her slightly crooked nose. Her cardigan bunches around her elbows while she delicately sips a cup of coffee, leaving a ring of color around the rim. Sitting at an angle, one foot taps impatiently against the floor.

Suddenly, I’m ten years old approaching with a terrible report card.

“Aurora!” Her eyes widen and she abandons her coffee, surging upward from her seat. “You’re late!”

Where most would be greeted with an affectionate hug, my mother simply digs her claws into my elbow and pulls me down into the chair opposite her. Then her eyes narrow to pinpoints and she leans across the table.

“You brought one of them with you?”

I don’t need to turn to know she means Orion who sits near the door, several tables away.

“I had no choice.” An excuse I know she won’t care for. “You know how tight security can be.”

My mother snorts sharply and her lips part, but she holds in her rant as the waitress appears with a pad in hand to take our order. I ask for a chicken panini with a side salad and a cup of tea and she hurries away. The hubbub around us of chatter, clinking plates, and the hiss of the coffee machine near the counter serves as a nice distraction from my mother’s steely gaze.

We sit in silence until food arrives.

“A bit much don’t you think?” My mother eyes my plate over the edge of her cup. “I thought you were watching your weight?”

My cheeks flush. She’s so desperate to talk to me, yet her first point of focus is my weight. Despite years of battling a moving scale and the judgment of a stick-thin mother, her comments still sting.

“They don’t sell it in halves,” is the only response I have.

“Hmm.” She snorts again, a chuffing sound, and then she leans so far across the table that the chain of pearls around her neck scrapes against the sugar containers. “How are we supposed to catch up with that dog nearby? And where the hell have you been? It’s one thing to stand me up, Aurora, but three days I’ve been calling. Three days and not even a message from you. You’re disgraceful. And what the hell happened to your face?”

Two bites in and my appetite is gone. Given how she’s normally like this, I’m not sure why I even bothered to order.

“Calling him a dog won’t do either of us any good if he hears you,” I snap back, keeping my voice light and low. “And—” Cassian flashes into my mind and I bite back a wince. “I was in a car accident.”

“What?” She straightens up, and her thin, penciled brows pull together. “What happened?”

“The snowstorm that hit a few days ago when I was supposed to meet you? I took my eye off the road for a second and then I…I crashed.”

My mother’s eyes linger on my hairline where the stitches and impressive bruising tell the story better than I can.

“I’m alright though. Just a few bumps.”

“How can you be so stupid?” she snaps, picking up her coffee. “Do you know how long we’ve been working toward this? How hard I’ve worked to get you where you are, and you almost throw it all away by driving recklessly?”

Her uncanny ability to make the crash about her should be award-winning. Still, guilt buds in my gut because despite her outer coldness, I know my mother’s anger and bitterness come from a place of great pain—pain caused by Lucian’s family.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm. Well, do you have anything to report? Have you managed to do anything since you started there?”

My shoulders slump and I shake my head. “It’s like I told you before, they keep up the facade really well. I haven’t seen even a hint of Bratva activity. Sometimes I wonder if the cover is so good because they really are normal people.”

“Don’t be so ridiculous, Aurora.”

“Sorry.”

“You just have to try harder. You should know by now what’s riding on all of this, what rests on your shoulders alone, or does that mean nothing to you?”

Her flat tone tells me she’s already made up her mind regardless of my answer and suddenly, heat rushes across my breastbone. A defensive urge to prove that actually, I do know something.

“Well, it might interest you to know that Cassian Chernykh is currently at the estate, badly injured and Lucian is caring for him.”

It slips out before I can stop it, and then I glance around for Orion. Luckily, he’s far enough away that there’s no way he heard me over the surrounding noise, but sweat still prickles down my spine.

“Are you serious?”

Turning back to my mother, her eyes are so wide that the mascara clumping her lashes pulls apart.

“I’ve seen him.”

Her gaze falls to the table. Poking around the food I have no stomach for, my heart pounds hard against my ribs as if about to burst free. It’s good information. I know it is. My mother is the one I am loyal to.

So why do I feel so guilty?

“This is good.” My mother nods repeatedly. “This is almost too good. Those people, every single one of them are monsters and now we have two under the one roof? We could take them out one by one. Have them tear themselves apart from the inside like the feral dogs they are.”

I wince. “But?—”

“Have you managed to get into the accounts yet? Found anything incriminating on Lucian at all?”

“No,” I sigh gently. “Lucian is very private and like I said, they’re hiding everything from me. As far as they know, I don’t even know they’re Bratva.”

“They’re snakes,” she hisses in response. “Imagine how that empire would crumble if Lucian died while Cassian was under his roof.” Her eyes glint with something cold and calculated and a different tightness clamps down on my gut.

“Mom, are you sure?—”

“Aurora!” She snaps so loud that the couple at the next table send us some irritated glances and I reflexively flash them a smile in apology.

“Those dogs killed our family, or did you forget?” she hisses sharply, her words dripping in poison. “My parents. My brothers and sisters. My grandparents. All slaughtered just for existing.”

“But that…” Still, the urge to defend them rises as I dig a deeper hole. “That wasn’t Lucian. His father was in charge back then. It wasn’t Cassian either.”

“Enough.” Her teeth clack together firmly. “I don’t care. Crimes in this world are generational. Get your act together, Aurora, and remember why you are even there. Get into those files, get those accounts. Once we have that, the empire will crumble under my heel.”

“But—”

“In the meantime, I’ll think about this Cassian situation. I’m certain there is a way we can turn this to our advantage.”

“He’s hurt,” I try lamely to appease her. “He’s not a threat.”

“His existence is.” She sets down her cup and picks up the black leather clutch from the table. “Are you getting soft on me, Aurora?”

I hesitate and her eyes narrow.

“Do your job,” she snaps darkly. “Or I’ll let slip to the wrong people that Lucian has kidnapped Cassian, and who do you think they will look at as the rat?”

She stands abruptly and smooths down her pencil skirt while my cold sweat clings to my spine. She’s right. Of course she’s right. I’m in that home for a reason and it’s not to play house.

“You’ll take care of the bill, won’t you darling?” With a wave of her fingers, she departs leaving me completely torn between two truths.

What she tells me I should do and what I feel like I should do become a battle in my mind.

Maybe she’s right. Life in the Bratva is full of generational consequences. Can I really overlook the death and murder of my entire family because of a few cute smiles?

When I glance around the cafe and catch sight of Orion at his table, his lips pull into a small, warm smile.

Yeah … maybe I can.